Wk6 Intercultural Language Teaching

This is something I feel should be an integral part of learning language, and as a teacher would strive to implement it wherever possible in my classrooms.  It feels comforting that the shift in language teaching has gone towards culturally contexted meaning making (Liddicoat, 2008) and away from the traditional methods, as culture quite often goes hand in hand with language. 

As Liddicoat (2008) suggests, communication is not limited to vocabulary and language, culture also plays a significant part.  Problems can arise when contrasting cultural elements arise during communication, and furthermore some complex differences are generally undetected by the learner until they make a mistake.  To use a personal experience as an example, upon seen a cat basking in the sunlight with it’s legs stretched out, I used a familiar grammar construct in Japanese to say to a native speaker [hahaあのなまけものな猫を見て。。], lit: “haha, look at that lazy cat..”.  Seeing the confused look on my friend’s face I explained, but it was soon made clear to me that while in English culture we may use this term in a jokey, affectionate way to describe the cat, or there may be a sense of “I wish I had that cat’s life..” motivating the joke, in Japanese the use of an adjective such as lazy has deeply negative connotations, and wouldn’t be used in any cute or affectionate context.  Additionally under no circumstances would one “strive” to live the life of a sloth, or if one hypothetically had enough free time (as does a cat) one certainly would never joke about wasting it on such pursuits as “lying around”.  There are obviously some complex cultural things at play, rather than simple direct translation.  I know Japanese people are considered “hardworking” but isn’t that just a stereotype and something we should avoid in culture learning?  To what extent are they hardworking and how does work ethic and one’s contribution to society affect the day to day decision-making of people collectively or individually?  Most of the vocabulary I learned was raw and committed to memory for exam purposes, as Liddicoat (2008) rightly pointed out, the textbook we worked from often ignored cultural information or it was in the form of a “culture notes” page at the end of each chapter. 

In most learning situations there is always going to be a question of time in an exam-driven learning environment, so what is a good way incorporate cultural learning and how much time can we as teachers allocate to it for the students?  As a guideline for reflecting on our teaching practices in the classroom, I am certainly drawn to the framework as set out by Richards, Conway, Roskvist & Harvey (2011) in which a linear progression is experienced through making connections with their own culture, comparing it to other cultures, making a link between language and culture, reflecting on their own culture through the eyes of others and interacting in the target language.   I like this because a logical progression forms for exploring the complexities and putting them into practice.  The framework was designed for observational purposes but can be used as a reference point for teachers to work with (Richards, Conway, Roskvist, Harvey, 2011).

References

Liddicoat, A.J. (2008). Pedagogical Practice for Integrating the Intercultural in Language Teaching and Learning, Japanese Studies, 28(3), p277-290.  From http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10371390802446844# 

Richards, H., Conway. C., Roskvist, A., &  Harvey, S. (2011).  A framework for analysing observation data: Language teacher provision of opportunities for learners to develop intercultural competency.  In A. Witte & T. Harden (Eds.), Intercultural Competence : Concepts, Challenges, Evaluations (pp. 239-252).  Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang AG, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften.